STATE OF THE WORLD's INDIGENOUs PEOpLEs - CINU

EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionof their indigenous culture, lack of support and, in some cases, even physical and sexual exploitation. Sometimesindigenous children are not allowed to follow their cultural practices, such as wearing traditional dress andhairstyles. Indigenous children are often discouraged from speaking their native languages if not forbiddenaltogether. Students often feel unwelcome in the school towns; they long for their own village schools and oftenface emotional difficulties in a foreign learning environment that offers little support. 35 The very idea of separatingparents and children is foreign to many indigenous peoples. If separation happens, indigenous children are oftenunable to adjust, suffer from alienation and drop out.Boarding schools and other practices have often been aimed at assimilating indigenous children into the dominantculture and society. These policies were partly based on a racist notion that indigenous cultures were inferiorand that indigenous children would benefit from being assimilated into the dominant culture, language andsociety. These assimilationist policies uprooted children from their heritage, tore families apart and decimatedwhole communities. The victims of these policies were left without a sense of belonging; otsiders in both thedominant society and their own indigenous societies. In recent years, the damage boarding schools have doneto indigenous peoples’ cultures has been recognized, including by the governments of Canada, the United Statesand Australia. 36On the positive side, formal education has made it possible for some indigenous leaders and civil societyorganizations representing indigenous peoples to gain access to the state. Formal education has also helpedto improve the status of indigenous women, enabling them to become more active participants in decisionmaking that affects their lives.Education in boarding schools may also work in some countries and not in others. If students are separatedfrom their communities in order to attend boarding schools, vocational schools or universities, then emphasis onaffirming identity and cultural community with other indigenous students may help to ameliorate the conditions ofisolation. Community centres, active student organizations and cultural events, as well as indigenous issue policydiscussions and curricula, can foster student leadership, knowledge, retention and training. 37Barriers to education for indigenous childrenMost indigenous communities see education as very important, even crucial, for improving their overall situation. 38However, indigenous children face a number of obstacles to participating in formal education systems. Some ofthese obstacles have to do with their marginalized situation; others are the direct result of national policies.Poverty, discrimination and marginalization are the leading causes of low educational performance which furtherexacerbate indigenous children’s vulnerable status. From the moment they are born and throughout their lives,indigenous children are particularly exposed to the effects of marginalization. They are less likely to receiveadequate health care because they are often not registered at birth or, in some cases, are denied citizenshipby the national state in which they live; they may thus have problems accessing education and other publicservices.35Hays and Siegruhn (2005), 31-32.36Official apologies have recently been made by the Government of Australia (February 2008) and by the Government of Canada(June 2008).37Champagne (2001), 21-28; Champagne and Stauss (eds.) (2002).38Vinding (ed.) (2006), 16.CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION | 141